This study will be carried out while the PI is under a Research Career Development Grant from NIA. It is the objective of this study to examine changes in the timing of life course transitions into old age in family and work roles and in kinship support networks for several cohorts from 1880 to the present. This project is unique in its linkage of a longitudinal historical data set with data on contemporary cohorts within te same families over time. Investigation focuses primarily on people in middle and old age, and examines changes in support networks and intergenerational relations in the later levels of behavior and perception, linking historical analysis with contemporary ethnographic and pattern analysis in the following areas: Behaviorally, the study examines changes in the timing of life transitions and kin interaction as they affect family status and kin support in middle and old age; the synchronization of family and work roles at different points in the life course; changes in family and household configurations in the transition to the later years of life ("empty nest," widowhood, and family dissolution); the impact of the timing of earlier life course transition on later ones, and of parents' timing on that of their children, changes in intergenerational relations, and changes in the relative roles of different support systems in old age such as kin, institutions, informal networks, and government agencies. Phenomenologically, the study examines patterns of changes in people's self-perceptions of transitions to middle and old age; perceptions of continuities and discontinuities in adult life; the existence of a "life plan" with conscious planning for the future. It also investigates the role and obligations and kin; attitudes towards bureaucratic and welfare institutions; and attitudes towards autonomy and dependency. The project utilizes a longitudinal historical data set for Manchester, N.H. from 1880 to 1940, which has already been analyzed. It will link this data with ethnographic interview material of two cohorts now alive in the city--the children of the historical cohorts. Support is requested for the gathering and analysis of ethnographic and demographic data. The project will result in a book.